Scene 1: Repair
It feels more like a medical clinic than a mechanic’s garage.
Except for the rows of bikes lined up indoors.
The clerk — nurse? — explains that they aren’t making any more appointments today.
(It is already 3pm)
But I can leave my bike and they will get to it tomorrow.
Scene 2: Princess
The bike place recently desegregated.
We have just gained a major new ally.
The king’s daughter.
Though some of us are still wary.
“Verily, it is meet that all but the untouchables should freely mingle.”
The Princess
She seems to genuinely believe in The Cause.
Not just for moral reasons.
But because she understands it is necessary for the kingdom to thrive.
However, I am conflicted by her apparently unconscious decision to NOT extend franchise to “the untouchables.”
On the one hand, all of us on both sides share the same visceral disgust of the unclean. Far worse than the mere contempt They have for Us.
Letting the untouchables roam freely would spark a violent reaction and further entrenchment.
Her position is probably wise.
There is latent support for normalizing Us/Them relations.
If we take the untouchables off the table, we could probably reach agreement within a year.
Ending centuries of discrimination.
The king would grumble, but even he would have to bow to economic necessity.
If we did that, surely the inexorable tide of history would make it
thinkable,
then possible,
and finally inevitable
to mainstream the out-caste.
But…
Some of our most devoted followers are themselves outcaste.
The marginal ones, who look and act almost like civilized mainstreamers.
One of them is even part of our leadership.
He blends in so well we often forget what he is.
He would consider this shift a betrayal.
And he would be right.
Because there is a very real chance that all the diffuse animus against US would just become concentrated against HIS people.
And that rather than paving the road to normalization
Splitting the cycles would just build a stronger wall
With nobody left to care
Still…
If I side with the untouchable
I am throwing away an easy victory
That would immediately improve the lives of millions
For a brutal slog against the deep-rooted prejudices of our very being
Which could tear our own movement apart
And we would probably lose
Leaving everyone worse off than before.
What principles
What relationship
Could possibly justify such an inexpedient decision?
Then I wake up
Reflection
This feels like a rumination I’ve been having
About my Left Brain
Starting to accept my Right Brain
While we have both been ignoring
My Hind Brain.
Radically Happy 
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